Under-age drink fine for city Tory

THE former head of licensing in Edinburgh has been fined £200 after under-age drinkers were caught in his city pub.

Conservative councillor Tom Ponton - a Deputy Lieutenant for Edinburgh and a Justice of the Peace - pleaded guilty to allowing a 15-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy to drink alcohol in his pub, Oz Bar, which is managed by his son Ian.

The councillor for Dean will now have to appear before colleagues on the city’s licensing board to explain his conviction.

At the city’s District Court yesterday, prosecutor Melanie Ward told Justice of the Peace Gari Donn that plainclothes police officers attended Oz Bar at about 9pm on January 5 last year as part of a crackdown on underage drinking.

The bar had been identified as having a difficulty with under-age drinking, Miss Ward said.

"They [police officers] saw a number of people believed to be under the age of 18 sitting within the premises - as many as 20," she said.

The officers estimated about 35 people were in the pub at the time. However, when the officers returned with uniformed colleagues they found one 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy drinking in the pub. Although Cllr Ponton, 55, was not there at the time, as licensee he has overall responsibility for the bar.

Ian Ponton, 26, had served the teenagers without asking for identification.

Defence agent Peter Winning said Cllr Ponton, had been in the licensing trade for 25 years and this was his first offence.

However, two years ago Cllr Ponton was threatened with enforcement action over his Merchant Street bar The Globe amid claims of excessively loud karaoke and unauthorised signs.

In addition to the Oz Bar and the Globe, Cllr Ponton also owns the Ocean Blue bistro in Leith.

His son Ian had managed Oz Bar in Candlemaker’s Row for eight years. The councillor had left day-to-day running of the bar to his son. Since his arrest, he had laid down a new regime to ensure there was no repeat of under-age drinking.

Mr Winning urged Ms Donn to admonish Cllr Ponton, but she fined him 200, to be paid within a month.

"Under-age drinking is far too prevalent and something this court must take very seriously," she said.

Cllr Ponton, of Commercial Street, Edinburgh, refused to comment about the case in court today. Ian Ponton, of Queensferry Road, Edinburgh, also pleaded guilty to the same charge and was fined 400.

His defence agent, Peter Repper, said: "He didn’t ask for identification and he accepts he should have as manager ."

Cllr Ponton is currently suspended from his post as the city Tory group’s social work spokesman after accepting an invitation to a loyal address at Buckingham Palace.

Cllr Ponton attended despite orders from the city’s Conservative group not to attend.